Hong Kong protesters to keep up the pressure

July 7 2003By Hamish McDonaldChina CorrespondentBeijing

Hong Kong's weakened Government faces more protests this week - and what police predict could bring chaos to the city centre - despite its abrupt backdown on the highly criticised clauses of its new anti-subversion law.

Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed chief executive Tung Chee-hwa plans to put the amended law to the vote on Wednesday amid calls for it to be shelved for further review.

The organisers of last Tuesday's march against the security law, which was joined by 500,000 of Hong Kong's 7 million people, plan to surround the Legislative Council with 50,000 people when the law will be presented for its final vote.

Opposition groups hope to block its passage.

Democratic Party leader Yeung Sum said: "If we block the resumption of second reading, we can open up the second round of public consultations so that the people from the legal field, from the journalists, from the academic - they can all come in order to take the views, and we can have a second round of consultations."");document.write("

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But the opposition will depend on votes of the Liberal Party, a normally pro-Beijing grouping that is part of the Government's coalition in the legislature, where half of the members come from occupational constituencies and half from electoral districts. After indicating last week that he favoured deferring the law until December, Liberal leader James Tien has shifted.

Mr Tien played a key role in the Government's backdown. On Friday, he flew abruptly to Beijing and reported that key officials would leave the timing and content to the Hong Kong Government, as long as a security law was passed.

On Saturday, Mr Tung said that he would accept amendments to scrap a provision that allowed groups linked to proscribed mainland organisations to be banned, to add a public-interest defence for journalists and others who published official secrets, and to delete a provision for police searches without warrants in national security cases.

But he insisted that the law would go to the vote on Wednesday. "Our community will be further divided if we remain undecided on this issue," Mr Tung said. "Division is damaging to Hong Kong. Stability is the cornerstone of our success."

Even if the law is passed, Mr Tung and his administration have been greatly damaged in the public eye.

"The Tung Chee-hwa administration has effectively fallen in the sense that it is no longer able to function," respected commentator Christine Loh said.

Legislator Eric Li Ka-cheung, who normally supported the Government, told the South China Morning Post: "To maintain the Government's credibility, some officials should be sacrificed as this is the spirit of the accountability system."

Others have called on Mr Tung to resign rather than serve out his remaining four years. There is a growing call for Hong Kong's next leader and legislature to be directly elected by universal franchise.